Recipe: Cardamom Cucumber Sauté

Recipe

Cardamom Cucumber Sauté

Cardamom is a spice rarely used in traditional Western cooking, but once you've discovered it, you'll surely want to cook with it more often. Related to the ginger plant, cardamom has a warm, slightly sweet, lemony flavor. It has a strong aroma but is so subtle that it harmoniously underscores the mild flavor of warmed, buttery cucumbers. This makes an excellent side dish to simple grilled fish or herbed chicken and takes but a few minutes to prepare.

Ingredients

2 cucumbers
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper

1. Peel the cucumbers and slice them lengthwise in half. Remove the seeds. Cut the cucumbers into 1/2-inch wide pieces.

2. Heat the butter in a large skillet over low heat. Stir in the cardamom and toast for a minute or so, then add the cucumbers, salt, and white pepper and heat slowly, about 3- 4 minutes, until the cucumbers are warmed but not mushy. Serve warm.

This Archived Page created between 1994 and 2001. Modified August 2007

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